Save the Lion
by silent unknown walker
Summary: Hao Asakura is the new kid in school. Conflictive, humourless, antisocial, and just released from a mental institution, he finds it difficult to adapt to this new enviroment. HaoXTamao
1. The lion approaches

Hello there, here is another story of mine. I hope it doesn't result as bad as my previous story (which would be "there they stood" god! that was horrible!)

The story is set in the real world, in the modern time. There won't be any shamanic powers or any magic variation.

The story is about Hao going to school, after spending most of his life in a mental institution, the reason of this will be explained later. Due to his personality he has serious problems to adapt.

The main pairings are: HaoxTamao, YohxAnna, RenxPirika.

Most of the characters have a very different personality than in the anime, but some of them remain the same.

Disclaimer: I do not own shaman king............ do we always have to say that?

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**Chapter 1: The Lion approaches**

"Hey, Yoh! Wait up!" a boy, of about seventeen, with brown hair and eys, turned around to see his best friend, Ren Tao, an small boy with spiky black hair, running towards him. He stopped. "Thanks for waiting pal" said Ren, a boy of his same age, smaller than him in height, except for his spiky hair which gave him a few centimeters more, after having catched his friend. They were now leaving the school

"No problem" said Yoh

"Hey isn't your brother coming here the next week?" asked Ren, Yoh nooded.

"Yep, he is" he said, smiling slightly.

"Wow, Yoh's twin brother, I wonder what is he like" said the small boy. They turned around in a corner, heading straight towards the taller boy's house.

"Well" said Yoh "I don't don't think you want to meet him" Ren turned to him.

"Why? Is he just like you?" Yoh laughed nervously at this.

"Nope, he isn't" he said, Ren looked at him expecting more information "I think we are very different".

"Yeah? In what way?"

"Well... he has some... issues... some troubles..." he tried to say something coherent, but it resulted difficult to him.

"Troubles? What kind of troubles? Is he on drugs?" he asked

"What? No! No drugs. Geez, why are you asking so much questions? It's annoying" said Yoh turning away.

"Well, you are the one not giving any answ..." but Ren was interrupted by a scream coming from behind them

"Yoh!!" the aluded boy froze, with an scared look on his face, he turned to Ren, who burst in laugh as he watched the reaction of his friend. Yoh slowly turned around.

"Ana! You don't know how much I've missed you" he said, smiling nervously towards a group of three girls. The one in the middle was tall and thin, and had shoulder-length blonde hair, like Yoh, which was covered by a red scarf, tied behind her head. She had a serious, almost pissed expression on her face. The shorter one looked younger than the blonde, and had long sky-blue hair, just like her eyes. She was smiling in a friendly way, quite the opposite to her taller friend. The last one had shoulder-length pink hair, same as her eyes. She wasn't relly paying much attention to the guys in front of her, and was staring at the floor.

Yoh walked towards the one in the middle, with still smiling nervously. She had her arms crossed in front of her.

"You don't know how beautiful you..." he began to say but was interrupted.

"Save it Yoh" said the girl, looking at him with a killing intent "Why didn't you wait for me?" she asked. Yoh looked around at Ren, in a pleading way, he just shrugged and smiled.

"Sorry pal, she is not my girlfriend" he said.

"That's right" said the girl with blue hair "I am your girlfriend" Ren blushed.

"But I haven't asked you to be my girlfriend yet Pirika!" he said, the girl chuckled, enjoying his surprised expression.

"I know, I..."

"Sip it" said Ana suddenly, who was still waiting for an answer to her question. While Yoh had began to sweat, even though the day wasn't so hot "So?"

"Well..." he began to say, scratching the back of his head, trying to find the right answer "The maths teacher sent us so much homework you know, so me and Ren were heading to my house to finish it right away... Right Ren?" the spiky haired boy looked from Yoh to Ana. Then back to Yoh. Feeling a little intimidated.

"Ye-yeah, right... lots and lots of homework" he said trying to follow his friend's game, something he failed miserably.

"Yes, exactly" said Yoh, nodding "lots and lots of homework" Ana raised an eyebrow, not swallowing any of the boy's words. Then she sighed.

"Ok, ok. I'll let it pass this time, but would you please stop forgetting that you have a girlfriend? You know that that guy Ryu and his pals have the hot for me" she said. Yoh smiled, more serene, and mature, placing his arm around her waist.

"Don't you worry " he said placing a kiss in her cheek "I would never let anybody lay a single finger on you" Ana blushed a little and smiled.

"Well, aren't they cute?" said Pirika. The pair ignored her, and gently kissed. Ren smiled at the sight, then looked at Pirika, who was looking at him. He blushed a little, but then he noticed that the pink haired girl was staring at the pair too, smiling slightly.

"Hey Tamao" he said, the girl turned to him "aren't you going to say hello?" he said, Tamao blushed a little.

"Umm.... yeah.... sorry. Hi Ren" she said smiling at him "how was your day?" the boy shrugged.

"I'll live" he said "You?" he asked back.

"Same" she said. Then silence invaded the atmosphere. While the pair was still kissing each other, obviuosly enjoting the moment.

"Well, Yoh!" said Pirika suddenly, the pair broke from the kiss, and the boy turned to her.

"Hmm?"

"Are we going to stand here all day while you two make out?" she asked, Yoh laughed slightly.

"Sorry sorry" he grabbed Ana's hand and began to walk, the others followed.

*********************

"So" said Ren, while a glass of juice was placed in front of him. They were now at Yoh's house. The boy stared at him, with a puzzled expression.

"So what?" he asked

"Your brother" said Ren "what is he like?"

"Your brother?" asked Pirika, who was sitting besides the spiky haired boy "you have a brother?"

"Yeah, sure I do, haven't I talked about him to you?" the girl moved her head, no.

"You never talk about him" said Ana, who was sitting besides Yoh, While Tamao was at the head of the table.

"What is he like?" asked Pirika "is he younger than you?"

"Nope" he said smiling.

"So he is your older brother"

"Well, he is for 20 minutes" he said, they all looked at him, surprised.

"He is your twin brother?!" asked Tamao. Yoh nooded,

"Why didn't you ever told us?" asked Ren, Yoh shrugged.

"Well... I told Ana" he said looking at her.

"No you didn't" she said in a serious tone, the boy frowned.

"Really?" everyone sighed, annoyed.

"Man" said Ren placing a hand on his face "you are unbelivable" Yoh chuckled.

"Hehe, sorry" he said

"So?" asked Pririka

"So what?" they all sighed again, much more annoyed.

"Your brother damn it!" screamed Ren.

"Oh right, my brother" he saighed, making a humorless smile. They looked at him, a little worried. He was staring at the table now, with an slightly sad expression on his face "my brother.."

"What's wrong Yoh?" asked Ana, looking worriedly at him. He turned to her, still smiling.

"Well, there are some problems with my brother" he said

"What kind of problems?" asked Ren. Yoh scrathched his head, something that he usually did when he was in a uncomfortable situation.

"Well..., you know... some problems" he tried to say.

"Is he on drugs?" asked Pirika, Yoh turned to her, then to Ren, and the boys burst into laugh. The girls exchanged puzzled looks between them.

"What's so funy?" asked Pirika, the most annoyed of the girls.

"Nothing, nothing" said Ren between laughs, trying to stop. The girls just remained quiet while the boys regained their breaths.

"God that was funny" said Yoh after he had regained his composture, then he turned to Pirika "and, no. He is not on drugs" he said.

"So what is the problem with him?" asked Tamao, already exaperated for the evasives of the brown haired boy.

"Well... I don't really know if I should tell you" he said looking around nervously.

"Aww come on" said Pirika "You allready made us curious, maybe he can be Tamao's boyfriend, is he cute?" she said smiling. Tamao blushed madly.

"Pi-pirika!" she said aloud, the blue haired girl just shrugged.

"What? you surely need a boyfriend, since you broke up with my brother" she said, Tamao remained quiet, blushing a bit.

"We are not talking about me right know" she said "we are talking about Yoh's brother"

"Or, your soon-to-be boyfriend" said Pirika. Everyone bursted in laugh, except Tamao, who looked quite annoyed now.

"Nah, I don't think he'll be looking for a girlfriend any time soon" said Yoh

"Why? is he gay?" asked Pirika. Yoh laughed a little.

"No, he is not gay, he is just...." he moved his hands as if trying to express something, something nobody got right.

"Just...?" asked Ana, Yoh looked a little annoyed. He standed up, and walked around the room. Scratching the back of his head again.

"It's just that.... you should just wait for him to arrive" he finally said, but nobody was satisfied with this.

"Oh come on, you can at least tell us something can you?" said Ren "like... were has he been all this years, you never mention your brother, why is that?" Yoh now looked really annoyed.

"Well if don't want to tell you about him you should just live the subject don't you think? geez you guys really are nuisance" he said. Everyone felt quiet, looking at him. He didn't look at them, just stared at the floor, thinking again what he had said. "Sorry" he said after a few minutes of silence "I didn't mean that"

"What's wrong Yoh?" asked Ana, a little worried. She could notice that something really troubling was going on through his head. He remained quiet. Serious.

"Ana" he said lowly.

"Yeah?" she said.

"Could we please talk in private?" he asked, not looking at her. Ana stood up from her chair.

"Sure" she said following him towards his bedroom. The rest of the group remained quiet.

"What do you think is going on?" asked Pirika to her friends, they both raised their shoulders, not having the slightest idea.

*********************

"What's going on Yoh?" said Ana right after they entered his room. He stared through the window, still scratching his head.

"Have I ever talked to you about my brother?" he asked

"No, you've only said to me that you have one" she answered. It was the truth, he had come out in random conversation, and had inmediatly changed subject. He turned around, and rested his back against the window.

"My brother..." he paused "Hao" he said finally.

"Hao?" she wondered.

"That's his name, Hao" for some reason, Ana noticed that it resulted hard for him to say that name, which only made her more curious. She nooded. "I haven't seen him for about..." he scratched his head, counting with his finger "three... or two...no! it was three, three years" he said, Ana recalled her thoughs, she had been with Yoh for about seven years by now, and she had never seen that mysterious brother.

"But... how come I haven't seen him?" she wondered, he stared at the floor. Now she was really getting worried, Yoh never acted like this. He usually was so carefree, so pacive. He always had an smile on his face, no matter what problem arosed.

"The truth is, he has been living in a mental institution for the last seven years" he said lowly. Ana's eyes widened.

"W-what?" she stuttered, not giving credit to her ears. He remained the way he was. He sighed, trying to give himself the courage to speak.

"The same day that my fther died in a car accident" he paused, the took a deep breath "Hao was with him. He watched him die" Ana covered her mouth with her hands. He remained quiet for a moment, then went on "I don't really know what happened there, I only knew that suddenly i had lost my father and that my brother was in a coma" he said. Ana had never seen him so serious "Three years ago he regained conscience, nobody knows why, they say that those kinds of things happen. People just... wake up from those comas, and nobody knows the reason to that" he said.

"Yeah, I've heard about that" added the girl. He nooded slightly "did you see him then?"

"Yeah, I did" he said "me and mum went to visit him but..." he paused, his eyes still fixed on the floor. Ana waited "But... he... he was different... he was..." he paused for a moment "he looked and acted like a completly different person. He wasn't my brother, he had changed is so many ways" he sighed loudly, moving his head a little to clear up his thoughs "that day we and my brother argued. Well, it mainly was him screaming at us. For some reson he looked really pissed, he just xcreamed things like I don't want to see you again, or leave me alone. Those kinds of things" he said, he was talking with more ease now, he smiled in a sad way "we were recomended to not visit him until further notice, and that further notice took years to arrive. A month ago we recieved a letter saying that Hao was ready to leave the institution, that it was up to him to recover fully, that there was nothing else they could do. So he is coming back" he said finally, sighing. Ana remained quiet for a moment, studing her boyfriend, with a serious expresion now.

"Is he going to enter the same school as us?" she asked, he nooded, she rested her back against against a wall, crossing her arms "and you haven't seen him for three years?" he nooded again, she sighed "well, I don't know what you should do. But I do know what you have to do" he turned to her.

"Which is?" she looked at him for a moment.

"Try to speak to him, as soon as he comes home" she declared. They remained quiet for a moment, looking at each other.

"Guess you are right" he said, he walked towards her, and rested his head against her elbow "I just hope that he isn't the same as three years ago" Ana remanined quiet. And gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'm here for you" she whispered "always" he lifted his head, and looked at her dark, mysterious eyes, and smiled. He gently kissed her. When they broke up, he was feeling better.

"Guess we dhould go back to the guys" he say, walking away from her, but she grabbed his hand, with an evil grin.

"There is no hurry" she said, while she placed her arms around his neck, and kissed him. He looked at her, then smiled.

"Guess you are right" he said, gently pushing her body towrds his.

***********************

"They surely are taking their time" said Ren, as he played with his empty glass, which content had been emptied minutes ago. Pirika was resting her head against his shoulder, while Tamao walked around the house, trying to find something interesting. She had been in that house countless times, and being a very curious girl, she had inspeccionated every part of it, from pictures to bedrooms. Sometimes, when nobody was looking at her, she would open some drawers of closets, just to see what was in them, she hadn't stolen anything in her life. This time she noticed that something above one of the pieces of forniture was a picture that she didn't recall ever seeing before.

It was a picture of a man in his early therties, with two identical boys being hugged by each arm of the man. The three of them had identical brown eyes and hair. The man was grining cheerfully, while the two boys were doing the opposite to each other: one was kicking and trying to get free of the mans grip, clearly annoyed for the position he was in, while the other was more relaxed, and grinned in the same fashion of the older man.

"Hey guys, comoe look at these" she said, turning around and walking towards her friends, They both turned to her, curious.

"What is it?" asked Pirika, Tamao gave them the picture. They both stared at it for a while.

"That's Yoh's father" said Ren "I've seen other pictures of him"

"We all know thst it's his father" said Pirika, Ren grunted.

"But the other boy..." began to say Tamao "I've seen pictures of Yoh when he was younger. But I never noticed this one, where he appears with his... umm... brother" she said. They both nooded. Pirika stared at the picture for a moment, then grinned.

"Which one do you think is Yoh?" she asked, both her friends looked at her then smiled, it was quite obvious. Tamao stared at the boy protesting, he truly seemed quite annoyed, he wasn't even lookig at the camera at the moment the pucture was taken.

"I wonder why I didn't noticed this one before" she asked aloud.

"That one was kept hidden by my mum" said a voice from behind, startling them. They turned, Yoh was coming out of his room holding Ana's hand he looked serious. He approached them slowly, and took the picture out of Tamao hands, and stared at it. Melancholy and sadness made themelfs present in his eyes, as he stared at the piece of paper in his hand.

They all remained quiet for a moment, wandering what the young boy was thinking. Then Tamao noticed odd at the back of the picture, there was something written there.

"Excuse me" she said as she grabbed the picture and read what was behind it. It was had-written, it said: _tle Lion and the Sleepyhead. _"the lion and the sleepyhead?" she said aloud, she turned to Yoh "what does it mean?" she asked. He smiled, as the others grabbed the picture and read the inscription.

"Oh! That" he laughed lowly a bit "my mun used to call us that way, Hao was the lion and I was the sleepyhead. You he had quite a temper even before he went away" he said, with a little of sadness in his words "and also his hair was much more longer than mine, and he refused to get it cut" he added smiling.

But after a moment, he erased it from his face, and turned to his friends.

"Guys" he said "there is something I need to tell you"

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Ok! there goes the first chapter

I was right: this _is _going to be boring

Oh well... guess I'll just keep on writing, since I don't have anything better to do.

I wish you all a good night.

And good luck


	2. Repulsive

Well, here is chapter two.

Whcih actually didn't go the way I wanted, so it's pretty bad written.

Thank you for the reviews.

I do not own shaman king

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**Chapter 2: Repulsive**

It was a very small and simple room.

The walls were white, same as the covers of the bed. There was a desktop, white too, a piece of paper and a pencil laying over it.

There was a young man, with very long brown hair standing in at the middle of the room. He was wearing brown pants, and a white t-shirt.

A bag was at his feet.

He was staring at the peace of paper laying on the table.

He read what was written on it, as he had done countless times before.

"What I'll remember from my time here:"

That's what it said.

He just stood there, staring at those tiny letters, making no expression, making no move.

In his mind, a hundred of words could have perfectly described his time in that place: lonliness, hatred, rage, trauma, sadness, fights, abuse........ and the white room.

He looked around the place were he had slept in the last 3 years of his life.

God, how he hated that place.

Without making a sound, he slowly grabbed his bag, and walked towards the door.

Which was also white.

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"I asure Mrs. Asakura" said the doctor to a woman in her late therties, with brown hair, and pale skin "there is nothing to worry about, Hao just needs to adapt to an enviroment were other young people of his age develop" he said, he saw the doubtfull look on the womans eyes, and he sighed "there is nothing else we can do for him. It's up to him to become a normal person. He must find his own way in life" he said. The woman gave a faint smile at him, her hands trembling while holding her purse.

"I hope so doctor" she said, the doctor smiled.

"Don't worry, it'll be find" he said, then he turned to the main gate of the hospital, where he spoted a young man with very long hair coming out "Here he comes" he said. The woman rised her gaze just to see him pasing through the the door that had been open at the fence that separated them from the hospital grounds. He walked towards them, then he stopped a meter away from the woman.

The boy just stared at her, not showing any sort of emotion. The doctor approached the young man, and gave a pat in the back.

"Hao. I'm glad to introduce you to your mother" he said, indicatind with the palm of his hand at the woman in front of them.

"Hi Hao" she said, smiling a little "how are you doing?" the boy didn't say a word, just stared at her. She felt a little intimidated by his gaze, but kept smiling "you.... uhmm... you look quite healthy" it was true, he had the body of an athlete. But the thing that puzzled her, were the big black circles he had under his eyes "The car is over there" she said as she pointed towards a green car, which was the only one at the parking lot. As if he had been given an order, he began to walk towards it. The woman watched him go, feeling a little down for his cold behavior. The doctor noticed this, and geva her a paternal pat on the back.

"Don´t worry" he said smiling "It's completly normal for people who leave the institution to feel a little suspicious about what they'll be facing" the woman smiled a little.

"Thank you doctor. For taking care of my son" she said, squeezing the hand of the man in front of her.

"Don't worry ma'am, it has been our pleasure" answered the doctor. Smiling again, the woman made her way towards the car.

Just as she walked away from the man, a nurse approached to him.

"Sir" she said, lowly, with a guilty expression on her face. He turned.

"Yes?" he asked. The nurse looked towards the floor.

"Do you think is good to let Hao go in the state hi is in?" she asked "we both know that he is far from being well" the doctor sighed.

"You know we can't keep him in here any longer" he said as he watched the engine of the car getting started "one of this days he could kill somebody, even one of the nurses. And we don't want the families of the patients to demand us. We can't afford that" he said. He smiled again, and waved at the car as it went away.

"But sir, he's dangerous!" said the nurse, now that they were gone, she could talk freely. The doctor remained where he was, staring at the long street in front of them, which was being transited by one green car.

"I know that. But there is nothing else we can do" he said. The nurse turned her eyes to the ground again and nooded. the doctor smiled "Come on, let's go back in" he turned to the sky "I think a storm is coming"

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Hao stared at the world outside. He could see bouldings, trees, people. It was all so repulsive. It made him want to get out of the car, and start hitting everyone that came across his path. He so children playing, which made his blood boil as if it was in fire.

Kids. He hated kids. More than enything. Well... perhaps not as much as himself. But they still were horrendous creatures. Naive and stupid people. People that wnated everything for themselves. That if it was up to them, the wotld would only turn around them. And for them, it did.

This though. For some reason, gave him the urge to vomit.

He turned slightly to see the woman besides him.

Stupid woman. She had let herself be deceived by the man dressed in white.

It was incredible how people believed anything said by a man dressed in white.

She looked quite weak. He didn't remember her that way. He didn't know what way he remembered her. The only thing he was sure of, was that woman was his mother.

Yes, his mother. The person who had brought him along with another bastard to this miserable place, whose inhabitants called world. God, how couldn't they see the enormous amount of shit that was surrounding them?.

It truly was a repulsive sight. A repulsive person, who had done a repulsive action: bring two repulsive people to an equally repulsive world.

At least he had to thank her for not speaking.

"So..." began to say the woman, why did he had to think of it? "how have you been?" she said smiling. He remained quiet, but she didn't stop "Yoh is waiting for you at home. He has a lot of friends. I bet he'll be happy to introduce you to them" she said, never erasing the smile from her face. Hao was through with her talking.

"Leave me alone" was all he said, it was almost the only sentence he had said in the past two years. The woman turned to a him a little durprised. But then turned her eyes to the road, nooding slowly, remembering the words of the doctor.

Hao kept staring out through the window, with a bored expression on his face, which didn't showed his thoughts, full of hatred and disdain.

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"He should be arriving any time soon" said Yoh, as he checked his watch, while resting his back against a wall. He had invited his group so they could greet his brother. Hoping that he had changed his attitude in the past years.

They had prepared an small welcome party. Some sandwiches, snacks and drinks. The girls were finishing the preparations. Ana approached her boyfriend. They were wearing casual clothes, for it was Sunday. She hugged his arm, and rested her head against his shoulder.

"Don't worry sleepyhead" she said "it'll be fine, there is nothing to worry about" Yoh turned his head to her, and smiled slightly.

"Yeah! she's right" said Ren from behind them. He was resting on a couch, with an arm around Pirika, who was rsting her back against him, while Tamao was placing the last things on the table "everything is going to be okay, we have beer!" he said cheerfully, everyone laughed at his comentary. They were right, thought Yoh, everything was going to be fine.

"Hey look!" said Tamao suddenly, as she watched through the window that pointed to the street "They are here" everyone rised inmediately from where they were sitting, and walked to were the girl was.

"Well he surely is your twin" said Ren, a little surprised "But his hair is a way more longer than yours. And I thought that your's was long" this got a couple of chuckles from the group.

"Wow, he's cute" said Pirika, noticing his well shaped body.

"Well thank you" said Yoh, now everyone laughed at that. They watched as the boy stoped in front of the entrance fence, and stared at the house in front of him.

"What's he doing?" asked Pirika, nobody answered. They noticed the look of anger on his face, and felt a little intimidated "Is he angry for some reason?" asked the girl again. Nobody answered to that question either. Then the boy started walking again, and everyone except Tamao went to the door to recieve him. But just as everyone else left, the boy with long hair turned to the window, and placed his eyes on the pink-haired girl. She felt a shiver run down through her back, feeling how much hatred was placed in those eyes, who were looking stright at hers. He stopped for a moment, then began to walk again. But the girl remained where she was, shocked.

Hao made his way to the front door, his mother following a few steps behind. He saw that the door slowly opened, and a boy with his same face coming out of it. So the bastard had grown up. His brother smiled at him, an smile that he didn't return. And just stood there, watching at his reflection. Yoh was puzzled by this, but kept on smiling.

"Hi brother" he said, lifting up a hand. Which wasn't shacked back. He frowned "are you ok?" he asked. Sutpid piece of trash, nobody had talked to him. Without saying a word, he resumed his walking, pushing away his brother.

"Get the fuck out of my way" he said as he pushed him to the side with his hand. And entered the house.

As soon as he put a foot inside, he was greeted by some guys, two girls, one with long blue hair, and colorfull clothes, and another with blonde hair, a long shirtles t-shirt with some pants under it, she also was wearing a red bandana over her head. Behind those two was a boy with short stature, with spiky hair, and with a dark red t-shirt and jeans. They were all smiling in an awkward way. The blonde one approached him, and handed him a glass which contained a drink.

"Hi, i'm Ana, your brother's girlfriend" she said smiling at him "pleased to meet you, and welcome back" he stared at her. So this was the bastard's bitch. Probably just as repulsive as him. He turned to the other people who were looking at him. They all looked quite stupid. Then he noticed another one, a girl. She was the one he had seen through the window. She had pink hair, and was wearing a white t-shirt and black pants. Something quite simple for a girl. She for some reason wasn't smiling, and was staring at the floor. He ignored it, and noticed that the friends of his brother were a little puzzled now, seeing that he wasn't answering.

"Just leave me alone" he said, and walked through them, entering further into his house. Which gave him a feeling of nostalgia that made him even angrier than what he was now.

Almost by instinct, he walked to the right, through a narrow corridor, full of doors. He passed on the first one, but stopped at the second one. And opened it.

It was his room. His old room. Not the white one.

He closed the door behind him, and entered. He had no memory of the place, but he knew for some reason that this was the one. It almost had some kind of familiar smell in it. He studied it. There were posters of reggae singers on the white walls, also there was a shelf with some books, magazines, CDs, and DVDs. A desktop, with a computer and some textbooks on it, probably for school. On the chair was placed the school uniform, which had the combination of green pants, and a yellow-white shirt. There were two beds, one over the other. The one below looked messy, while the other seemed untouched. He placed his bag on it, and walked through the room. It wasn't small, and it wasn't big either.

So this was the place where he was going to sleep from now on.

As expected, it was repulsive.

And the idea of sharinf it with him made it even more repulsive.

And the exact moment he ahd seen his face, he, for some reason, felt the tremendous urge to hit him. As if the simple sight of his horrible smiling face pulled some kind of trigger inside of him. And the worst of all was that he had no idea of the reason to it.

He sighed in annoyance. It was going to be difficult this new life. The life at the institution was, at least, quite simple, painful and hard, but simple. He spent most of his time exercising his body, trying to loose energy, so he could go to sleep more easily. Something that he found quite difficult, and had never done for more than two hours.

This was because of the nightmares. Yes, the nightmares.

Fire, horror and fear plagued his nightmares. Memories buried deeply in his mind. He knew where they came from. He had been told about the accident that had taken his father's life, but, in truth, he had no memories of it. The only thing he remembered was waking up years later, hating everything that moved. Everything that was alive. His mother and brother came to visit him. He expected to feel something else besides the hate. But the moment he laid eyes on the two of them, he wanted attack them so badly, that he bagan to insult them, seeing that he wouldnt want to hurt them. He felt so much hatred towards them, that it hurt.

Since then, it had been the same with everyone. The moment he saw something, he felt a tremendous hatred towards it. So he developed a cold personality, like a shelf where nobody was able to get in.

But when he was alone, it was a different story.

When he was alone, the only one left to hate was himself. And he soon found out that that was what he truly felt: he hated himself with all his heart. For some reason, he hated everything he did, everything he said, everything that surrounded him.

He didn't know why, but he did, every time.

But the people at the hospital were obviously not satisfied with this. Nurses, doctors and even other patients tried to approach him. But he pushed them all away. He at one time had suddenly hited one of the many people that had tried too hard to link with him. He had enjoyed. He had enjoyed it very much. From then on, every time someone who wasn't woman (for some reason he couldn't bring himself to hit women) tried to speak with him, he would hit them. He didn't care if they were old, or schizophrenic, or masochistics. He would do it, and he would enjoy it.

This soon brought punishment from the male nurses. Most of them were more crazy than the same patients in the institutions. They only wanted to scape from their miserable existences by seeing how miserable other people were. And from time to time they could have green light to hit other people, what else could you ask for?

To Hao, it was a daily punishment. They usually hit him with sticks in the legs and stomach. One time they broke his left one. It had been quite painfull, and he assumed that he wasn't a masochist, so his hate for himself couldn't be satisfied with self hurting.

Funny, he was making his own analysis about himself.

The truth was that he hated too the way he was. He would even cry in desperation. When waking up from a nightmare, or after hitting someone. He was so full of hatred, of loneliness, of sadness, of regret, that he could barely stand it. He wanted it to end. And he knew the fastest way to do that. But he was scared of it.

He couldn't bring himself to commit suicide, the sole idea terrified him.

He suddenly heard a knocking on the door.

"Hao" it was the bastard "i'm coming in" and he watched as the door opened slowly.

*************************

"What the hell was that" asked Ren aloud as soon as Hao closed the door of him room. They all had shocked expressions on their faces. Then Yoh and his mother entered. They had a sad expression on their faces. They all looked at the two.

"Yoh..." said Ana, with a worried look. He smiled sadly.

"I guess my fears have come true" he said.

"You mean that..." began to say Pirika, remembering the conversation they had have about Hao. Yoh nooded.

"He's exactly the way I remember him" he said. His mother remained quiet behind him, just like everyone else "guys" he said after a while, they turned to him "I truly apreciate your coming here, but... I think is better for you to leave" they all looked to the floor, he was totally right. Things hadn't gone the way they had expected it.

"Yeah" Pirika was the first one to react, he grabbed Ren's hand "you are totally right" she was smilinga little, trying to fight the tension that could be felt in the air. He dragge the boy with spiky hair as she walked towards the door.

"H-hey!" said a little surprised Ren.

"Thank you for receiving us Mrs. Asakura" she said to the older woman, who smiled weakly.

"No problem dear, please come again any time you wish" she said, Pirika turned to Yoh, and dedicated an smile to him "see you on monday" the boy nooded, smiling. Then she opened the door and walked out, dragging behind her the dark-haired boy.

"Goodbye, and thank you!" he screamed, not really understanding the situation. Tamao rised her head, which had been turned towards the floor this whole time.

"Mrs. Asakura" she said, the woman turned to her "do you need any help to clean up everything?" she said.

"Oh no my dear, i'll be fine on my own" she said smiling. The girl nooded.

"Well then, I better get going too. Thanks for everything ma'am, and i'm sorry for not being able to help on anything else" she said

"It's okay, don't worry" he said smiling a little. She was about to live, when she stopped.

"By the way" she said turning around "Is Hao going to attend the same school as us?"

"Yes he is" said the older woman "he is going to start on monday" Tamao nooded again.

"Well, goodbye" she said waving. They all answered. After she left, silence invaded the place. Ana turned to Yoh.

"I better get going to" she said, Yoh looked at her a little surprised.

"Aren't you gonna stay?" he asked, she moved her head in a negatie way.

"No, it's up to you to deal with your brother" Yoh scratched his head.

"Guess you are right"

"Goodbye Mrs. Asakura"

"Goodbye sweety" Ana turned to her boyfrien and gave him a little kiss on the lips.

"Bye sleepyhead" she said, and closed the front door behind her.

"Sleepyhead" said the woman, Yoh turned to her "that's what I used to call you" he smiled.

"Yeah, and he was the lion" he said.

"Yes. The lion" they remained quiet for a moment.

"You look tired mum" said the boy "you should get some sleep" the woman smiled.

"Yeah, guess you are right" she said, and made her way to her room, which was at the oposite corridor to the one with doors, she turned to Yoh "Goodnight" and closed the door.

Yoh sighed a little, and began to put everything that had been set for the party back to were it should be. After finishing he made his way to his room. He stopped in front of the door. He sighed loudly, trying to get some strength out of nowhere. He knocked.

"Hao" he said, nobody answered "I'm coming in" and he pushed the door open. When entered, he saw his brother standing in the middle of the room, the lights were of, so the only source of light was coming from the outside. He was looking at him, but he couldn't see his face due to the darkness. He closed the door behind him. And remained quiet, looking at the dark figure in front of him.

He had been surprised when his brother pushed him aside to enter the house. It had been quite a shock, but then he had remembered the way he had treated him when they first met years ago. His eyes full of hatred, of sadness. It had affected him very much.

Inside of him, he had hoped that his brother would come as different person. He spected an smile, a fraternal hug. But none of those things happened.

It had been only his cold stare. The same one he had seen years ago.

They had been in silence for a few minutes now. None of them moving an inch.

"Everybody left already" said Yoh. Silence again "Aren't you going to say hello or something?" nothing was heard. Yoh sighed, annoyed, disappointed "you know" he began to say. He had the strange habit of saying everything that crossed his mind, and he was about to "I was expecting that our reunion would be a little different" he paused for a moment, no reaction again "we haven't seen each other for years, and now that we can finally meet, I thought that you would be different from last time. I guess I was wrong" he was getting serious now, tired of being the nice guy with his brother "you haven't changed one bit, have you? you are still screaming things like 'live me alone' or 'go away' only in a lower tone now" silence, he was beggining to get to his nerves "Just what the hell have you been doing this last years, huh? going to the gym? hitting other people? why are you still the same?" then something happened, the boy in front of Yoh jumped towards him, and pinned him against the door.

Yoh could now see his eyes full of rage.

"Just leave me alone you sleepyhead" he said. They remained like that for a moment, none of them doing anything else but breathing. Then, slowly, Hao let go of hist T-shirt, and climbed to his bed.

Yoh was shocked. But not because of his sudden attack. He was surprised for the way he had addresed him. 'Sleepyhead'. So he still remembered that. He stood there for a moment, then he sighed, and laid down on his bed. This was going to be quite difficult.

After a few minutes, he fell sleep. While on top of him, a boy of his same age, tried to do that with all his strength.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

Well, guess that's it.

I guess i didn't know were I was exactly going with this chapter, but it was quite difficult to write it.

One thing that I want to leave clear is that Ren won't be the dark boy he is in the anime. Also Yoh won't be as lide-back as in the series.

I also want to leave clear that the actitude doctor is probably one of the most fictional things I've ever written. No doctor would never do that to a patient........ I hope.

And also, Hao is going to be completly (and I mean completly) different from the series.

Leave reviews if you want. But try to be productive when you write them.

Try giving me some advices or ideas you've got for the story (noy now, but later when it is more developed), since this is a fanfic, and fanfics are done by and for the fans of the anime.

Thank you for reading if you have.


	3. Coral

And here comes three

Sorry for the delay, it's just that I couldn't bring myself to write. I guess my source of inspiration is lacking.

I'm a little more experimental in this chapter, but please try to endure it.

**Pulchrite: **Sorry for beating you in this, but I think you can still write even if our stories look similar, I don't think that you are a TamaoxHao fan. I really appreciate your review, it was actually very constructive, and I hope I recieve more of those.

I don't own Shaman King............... I guess.

****************************************************************************************************************************************

**Chapter 3: Coral**

"What the hell was that?" said Ren to the girl besides him, still confused for had just happened. Pirika sighed, and turned to him.

"You are not very good at reading situations, are you?" she said, the boy looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"Reading situations? what the hell is that?" he asked, the girl sighed again.

"Didn't you feel the atmosphere that was merging over there?" she said pointing at her back. Ren was still confused. Then after thinking a little bit, it hitted him.

"Wait, you mean that because of Hao's reaction, everyone was shocked, so it was better for us to live, right?" he asked, Pirika nooded, a little more serious this time.

"Things definitely went wrong" she said, the boy beside her nooded.

"Yeah, Yoh looked pretty down, guess he was expecting something a little different" they both walked for a while in silence. Pirika hugged herself.

"It sure is cold" she said. She was right, it was a cold autumn night, and a cold breeze was blowing. Ren, almost inmediately, placed his arm around her shoulder, bringing her closer to him. She smiled, and placed her arm around his waist. After a while of them being in that position, neither of them were cold anymore.

"Body heat" he said, she chuckled, resting her head against his shoulder. He could smell the essence that her hair produced, it was an entoxicating feeling. She suddenly turned her head to him. He looked at her, her blue ayes holded an entire galaxy, were he could get lost for eternity. Time wasn't running. The wind seemed to have stopped, just for their sake, so they wouldn't be bodered.

He brought up his hand, and caressed her face. She smiled, and closed her eyes, and he slowly pressed his lips against hers. They remained that way for a few minutes, and when they broke the kiss, they both smiled and chuckled. And continued walking.

"Are you still cold?" he asked, she moved her head saying no. Then she raised her head, realizing something.

"Shit!" she said, stopping. Ren looked at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Looking at her a little worriedly. She turned to him.

"Tamao" she answered "I told her that we would walk her home" she said.

"You think we should go back?" asked Ren, the girl remained quiet for a moment, then sighed.

"No, I guess it doesn't make any difference know, she would have called me if she needed us to go with her" she said

"You sure?" he asked, Pirika bitted her lip, she was a little worried. Of all the people in the group, Tamao was the one that lived farther from Yoh, and it was a dangerous way back to her house. She had already called her parents back at Yoh's place, telling them that she would return by herself.

"I'll call her" she said finally, pulling out her cell phone, and pressing it against her ear. But after a moment she pulled it off, with a shocked expression on her face. She turned to Ren "It says her phone is off" she said.

"You think she already arrived at her house?" he asked.

"Impossible, we haven't even arrived to mine yet" she looked around, worried. then brought out her phone again "I'll call Anna, she must be closer to her"

**************************************

'_I hope she returns safely'_ thought Anna as she turned around, making her way to her house.

_'Shit, it's cold!_' she thought as she tightened her clothes around her, the cold breeze penetrating through her vest _'I should have asked Yoh to walk me home'_ she smiled to herself _'guess that wouldn't have been the best thing. Damn that Hao, who does he think he is? Sure he just got away from the nutty house, but he could have at least said hello or long time no see. I mean, both of them have not seen each other in ages, for christ sake!'_

She sighed, letting her warm breath bring steam out of her mouth.

_'Should I interfere? I don't think so, it's a family matter, and me and Yoh aren't that deep in our relationship. But I wish I knew why Hao acts that way, doesn't he sees that Yoh was hurt by his atittude?'_

She sighed again.

_'Gah!, I wish I could read minds'_ she said smiling slightly. Suddenly her phone began to ring. She looked at the screen. _'Pirika?'_ she placed the phone by her ear.

"Hello?"

"_Hey, Anna, is Tamao with you?"_

"Tamao? no, she is not with me. I walked with her a little, but then we parted ways, why?"

"_It's just that she is not answering her phone"_

"Yeah, the battery of her cell phone run out a short while ago" a small drop of water fell upon her forehead "Shit, it's starting to rain"

_"Yeah, same here. I'm worried about her" _

"Yeah, me too" Anna bit her lip "It takes to her like 30 minutes to arrive at her house. I'll call her from my house, if she is not there, we can panic, okay?" She heard the blue haired girl give an small chuckle, which didn't hide how worried she was.

_"Allright. You call me if she doesn't answer, okay?"_

"Of course, goodbye"

_"Yeah, bye"_

_******************************************_

Tamao turned to her right, and watched how Ren and Pirika walked on their own. She smiled to herself _'I think I'll live the love birds in their own little world' _she thought. She turned to the other way, and started walking.

"Hey, Tamao!" she heard someone calling her from behind, it was Anna.

"Anna? Aren't you going to stay with Yoh?" she asked, the blonde girl said no by moving her head.

"Nah, he has a brother with whom he needs to speak" she said smiling "I'll walk with you until we split, okay?"

"Sure" answered Tamao. They started to walk in the opposite way that Ren and Pirika had taken. The girl looked at them, and smiled again.

"Are you going to your house by yourself?" asked Anna

"Yeah" answered the pink haired girl "I thought I should the love birds by themselves"

"You sure? it's pretty late. Why don't you call your parents?" Tamao considered for a moment.

"Nah, I already told them that I would go back with a friend, and that I was going to be late" she smiled "They are probably trying to give another brother right now" both girls laughed. A ring sounded suddenly, it was Tamaos phone. She checked it "Damn!" she cursed.

"What?"

"Battery out. Guess i'll just turn it off" she placed he cell phone in her pocket. She sighed "You think Yoh is gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, he's going to be fine. He is tougher than what you think" Tamao smiled. She began to walk towards the right.

"Well, here we part ways"

"Yeah" they hugged each other "be careful okay?"

"Yes mom" she answered in a monotone tone, Anna took out her tongue in a playfull way "Bye" she said, turning around.

"Bye"

Tamao made her way throught the street. It was freezing, and it looked like it was going to rain. _'I better hurry' _she thought, and quickened her pace. While doing that, her thoughs wandered back to the house she had just left. Mainly the look in the eyes of the boy who had arrived to his home after a long time.

She had been really surprised by the way he had stared at her. His dark eyes seemed to contain a tremendous amount of suppressed feelings, as if his orbs were about to explode for the amount of things they couldn't freely express.

Feelings of anger, pain, sadness and regret. All combined, and hidden behind a cold stare.

She had to admit that the boy had catched her curiosity.

_'Wait' _she thought suddenly, while looking around _'where am I?'. _She had been too lost in her own thoughs, that she hadn't payed attention to the direction she was taking.

She looked around, trying to find out where she was. The streets didn't look familiar, nor their names.

'_Damn!_' she cursed mentally, she turned around, and began to walk. She passed different passages, not being able to recognize anny of them. People that walked in the night turned to her, noticing the worried expression she had on her face. In fact she was beggining to get a little desperate. She had no cellphone, and no money to pay a taxi. If she didn't find quickly her way home, she had no idea of what she should do.

Suddenly, a drop of water touched her forehead. And soon many others began to fall from the cloudy sky.

She cursed silently for not bringing anything better to cover herself. Know the streets and alleys looked darker, which slowly began to grow a certain fear inside the girl. Her breathing was getting quicker, while her clothes and hair were rapidly getting soaked with water.

Then, without her realising it, she began to run, while looking around franatically. Maybe if she keeped going she would inevitably come across a big street, and that would guide her, or at least give a hint of where she was. She couldn't be that far from Yoh's house, if she could gt back there, she might be able to use a phone, and give her parents a call. Yeah, there definitely was no reason to worry.

She ran for a few minutes, until she was able to hear the sound of cars. And after a moment she arrived to a street which wasn't part of a neighborhood anymore. It was like arriving to a different place: from quiet and almost deserted streets, to come a to very broad and bussy street. Even if it was quite late, lots of cars kept running down the road, with their lights flashing at the walkers of the night.

Tamao, still panting from the exhaustion, recognised the place, she was not far from Yoh's house. She made her way up the street, until she arrived to a pub. She and her friends usually spended some time there, it was quite cheap, and it was a few minutes from Yoh's house.

Now knowing where she was, she turned left before arriving to the pub, and reentered the dark and silent streets, but this time she she was not scared for she knew where she was going.

Her clothes were now completly soaked with water, which made her freeze to the bones. And after running so much, fatigue had fallen upon her. This truly had been an awful night.

She was know very few blocks away from her friend's house. She felt really stupid: getting lost going to your own house, through a path that you've walked thousands of times, and know having to bother someone else for your stupidity? It truly made her made some regret, but she had no other choise.

"Please don't do this!" she suddenly hear someone scream. It was a male voice, then she heard the same man scream in pain. It was coming from around the next street.

"Shut up!" she heard another male voice scream. Tamao walked a few steps, and, while hiding behind a wall, she saw what was happening: a man, dressed in a suit was laying down on the wet street, while two thugs where throwing kicks at his stomach. She quickly hid herself behind the wall, terrified. She could hear the man pleading the men to stop. She was trembling, she closed her eyes, and tried to breath regularly. She had to do something. If she sayed there, they might find her or the man could die. If she screamed, they could shut her up quickly, she wasn't really strong, so she couldn't fight them. Her phone was out, and there was nobody to be seen in the proximities. There was only one option left: she had to go back to the main street, and ask for help.

She was about to do so, when she heard one of the thugs yell something that caught her attention.

"Hey! who are you?" he said suddenly, she froze, was there someone else? She resisted the urge to turn and look, for they might discover her, she was just a couple of meters away from the action "I said, who are yo..." but right when he was about to finish the question, he started to scream "My finger!!" she heard him cry out laud. What the hell was going on?

Taking a deep breath, she turned around the corner of the wall, just to take a pick. There weren't three people anymore. A fourth one had appeared.

********************************************

You can't sleep. Even if you close your eyes, or start counting sheeps, you can't sleep. Even if you relax every muscle in your body, and stay that way for minutes, and try to keep your mind blank, you can't sleep.

Then, slowly, the sounds of the silence beggin to invade your brain. Your thoughts are no longer whispered, but loudly screamed. Every image that flashes through your closed eyes is so bright and vivid, that it's almost as if you had gone back in time to that exact moment. You can feel the fire burning your skin, and pain bluring your vision.

You sit on your bed. You are sweating, even in the cold night, you sweat cool water. You place your hands on your face, trying to relax. You look around, remainding yourself were you are. That doesn't make you feel better at all. You ge out of your bed, adnthe coldness of the night hits you harder, your sweat now becoming cold, starts ripping your bones. You get down to the floor, trying to make as less sound as possible, but your stupid brother seems to be in practically another realm, as he doesn't even flinch when your feet touch the carpeted floor.

_'Sleepyhead' _you think to yourself, looking at him with cold eyes, feeling unexplicable rage merge into your mind as you see his peacefull face sleeping quietly.

You could kill him, end him right now. It would be quite easy. You just have to place your hands around his neck, and squeeze with all your might.

You stare at him for a few minutes, seriously considering. But then you push those thoughs away. You are not a murderer, you are not.

You keep telling yourself that, but something at the back of your mind tells you that the truth is the opposite, that it's your fault, and your fault only, the killing of a person. You can't understand why you think that way, nor you know what person it could be. It's just some kind of strange guilty feeling. A very strong feeling of guilt.

You turn to the window, walk slowly towards it, and push the courtains aside. The night is dark, clouds hide the stars and the moon. It seemes it's going to rain. Good. You do not hate the rain.

The light of the street luminaries penetrates the room. You watch the strange shadows that are created. They are strangely appealing.

You walk around your new room. There isn't anything interesting to watch. It's just a normal room, nothing more. Then why? why do you feel so strange? so.... nostalgic. Sadly, painfully, nostalgic. You can hardly stand it, you need to get out of there, right now. You dress up again, quickly, and leave the room.

When you close the dorr behind you, you get hit by the silence of the house itself. It's almost screaming at you without making a sound.

You make your make your way towards the livingroom. And you sit down on one of the chairs. You stay like that, quiet. Letting air in and out.

Outside it starts to rain.

You stare around the room. And long lost memories begin to rise. Memories of another life, of another person, a kid, feeling happy, laughing. That kid had a brother, a mother, and a father. They were happy, the boy, was happy.

You start to tremble, what is this? who are this people? who is that boy?

You know the answers to all those questions, but you don't wish to accept them. They are too painfull.

You keep staring around the room. You notice that many things have changed, some furniture is gone, and some is brand new. You stand up, and start walking around. Your footsteps sounding lowly in the silence. You see some pictures placed on desks or small wardrobes. It's dark, so you can't see them clearly, but you can see people with smiling faces looking directly at you.

You pick one of them. One with two almost identical boys on it. One of them is you, you know it. Your hand starts shaking, but your mind is set upon the picture. It makes you feel so strange, confused. In the picture both boys seem to be having fun, to be happy with each other. This was you. This is whom you used to be.

You place the pictura back on the desk. You are breathing faster now. You sre troubled by the thing that you've just seen. You don't know what to think.

Air. You need fresh air.

Quietly, you make your make your way back to your room, and grab a coat from your bag, you put it on you, there is a hood coming out from the back of it, you place it over your head. The keys to the house are on a desk near the entrance. You take them, then you leave.

You get hit by a freezing wave of wind and water. It's really cold outside, but you push those thoughts away, and start walking. You get to the street, you look to the right and to the left. You stand there for a moment, then you remember that you are right handed, so you take left, just to not make sense, not even to yourself.

You now walk under the water. Water that caressses the clothes that you are wearing, that rapidly and surely is dropped the gray and interminable clouds that plague the sky. You step on puddles, and get hit by bigger drops that fall from the trees. Now your body is not cold anymore, the coat doesnt let the water penetrate, but still the cold breeze runs underneath your clothes, and runs chills down your spine. But you keep walking, you turn leaft and right, not giving it anymore though. You may have even passed in front of your own house, and you wouldn't notice it, for you are in another realm, the realm of the thoughs, of your thoughs. It's your own little but personal world, the one that you, and only you can enter.

People have seemingly stopped using the streets, and sometimes a random car flashes your lights at you, making your eyes permanently lightfull. You wonder what they might think of you, it surely can't be usual to see a person taking a walk right under cats being followed by dogs. They might see people running around, trying to desperately get out of the rain, or people being under umbrellas.

"Jesus Christ" you hear out of nowhere behind you, you turn around. There is a man of around forty looking at you "boy, aren't you cold?" he asks you. You look at him, he is dressed in a suit, and has a brief case in his right hand, while with left one he holds an umbrella, he is probably returning late from work "You don't seem to have nothing but a t-shirt under that coat!" he is a good observator, even in this darkness. You don't dislike him, but he is quite annoying, it's better if you get away from him.

"I'm fine" you say, and turn around, and resume your walking. You hear the man chuckle and whisper something to himself, something like "this boys these days" or something like that. You walk for a moment, then you hear a scream. You turn around rapidly, it came from were the man took off. You walk slowly towards the direction of the scream. You hear other people scream.

When you cross the corner, you can see at the end of a short street three people, two of them hitting the third. There isn't much light, butt you notice the way the man on the floor is dressed, and you recognize him. He is the one who talked to you. And the other two are probably some thugs.

You consider for a moment. You could just leave, he doesn't mean anything to you. But he asked about how you were. So he worried about you. He probably is a good person, just going back to his house.

You take a deep breath, and you start walking towards the men, who don't notice you until you are a few meters a away from them. You stop. One of them turns his head towards you, and stops hitting the man. He doesn't look very old, probably on his late twenties, the same goes to his mate. They both looked skinny, and nervous. They were probably drunk or stoned.

"Hey! Who are you?" you remain quiet. You know how to fight. You have to remain calm, take the chances, and if possible, provoke your oponent. The guy who spoke, took out a small knife, he was armed, by the way he holded it, he probably knew how to use it. Maybe they are stonned, but nevertheless they could still mortally wound you with a knife. He approaches you, and grabs you by the collar of the coat, while pinting the knife at you. Bad mistake. "I said who are yo..." He is dstracted talking, now it's the moment. With one hand you grab as fast as you can the wrist of the hand which holds the knife, while with the other you grab the one holding you by the collar. With all your force, you make pressure, and break one of his fingers, it's easier than what it looked, and instead of one, you break two.

The man screams in pain, and drops to his knees, cursing. The other one hasn't reacted yet, so you take back your leg, and hit the one you are holding with your knee on the face. You can feel his nose break into pieces as you hit his face. He falls back. Blood coming out of his nose and mouth. He isn't unconscious, but you hitted him pretty bad, it'll be hard for him to get up. The other one has finally reacted, and he too has taken out a knife. But he seems more nervous, probably the leader of the two was the one you just knocked. This one holds the knife in a strange way, and he seems to be shaking. But even so, you can't get too confident, you defeated the other one easily because you had the surprise element at your side, but it's different now, you have to keep that in mind.

The guys approaches you slowly, the knife in his right hand always in front of him. You approach him too, your legs are flexed, and your hands opened and ready. You try to keep an eye on the other man, but he seems to be almost unconscious. Suddenly, without you anticipating it, the guy in front of you attacks. He tries to nail the tip of the knife on your chest, but the attacks is not that fast, and very precipitate. You move your torso to the left, the arm is now in front of you. With your right arm you grab it against your chest, enabling it to move. His face is clear, you can freely hit him. You conect a left punch to his face. A man's face is not something very soft. It may look like it, but there is a very solid skull underneath it, a badly given punch can break your hand. So you hit him in the eye. This is very usefull because this hurts him quite badly, and also leaves him half blind for a few minutes, if not permanently blind of one eye.

The man was now confused. You are better hitting with your right hand, so you quickly let go of the arm with a knife, and while grabing it with the left hand now, you hit him repeatedly in the face.

He soon strats to flinch. But you don't stop, he is in pain, and you like him. He falls to his back, probably unconscious, but you keep hitting him. He'll probably be desfigured for life, or he might die. You don't mind, you are enjoying this, you smile.

God, this feels so good.

"Stop!!" you freeze. Someone has just screamed. You look up, there is a girl standing right in front of you, a couple of meters away. But she is not any girl, even though it's dark, she is not wearing a hat or a hood, so she is easily recognizable "Please" she keeps talking "you are gonna kill him" she says almost crying. You ook down at the man under you. She is right, if I keep beating him up I might kill him. I turn to the other guy, he is slowly standing up. You walk to him, and you kick him on the face. Now he is unconscious.

You turn to the girl. She is still looking at you with a shocked expression. You both remain quiet for a moment. You do not dare to make a move.

"Who are you?" so she hasn't recognized you? that's understandable, you are wearing a hood, and the only source of light is a poor street luminarie. You consider for a moment. It would be troublesome to tell her your name, questions would have to be answered, and give further explanation. he wasn't in the mood for this.

You turn around, giving her your back.

"Call the police" you say, then you start to walk away. She doesn't follow you. When you are about to turn on the corner, you look back at her. She is still there, string at you. You stop, you look at her. Her pink hair is hilluminated by the small light. Her wet clothes revealed her figure which honestly wasn't that stunning, but still appetizing. For a moment you get lost while looking at her. You admit she is beautiful. But then you look away, and serume walking. loosing yourself into the night, trying to remember your way home, you had to get there fast, probably that girl was going there too.

*****************************************

Tamao stood there, shocked beyond belief.

Who the hell was that man?

She had been to scared to scream, or make a move. She had to bring out all her courage just to tell him to stop. For a moment she thought that he was going to attack her too.

Because of the hood he was wearing, she hadn't been able to tell what he looked like. But she could tell that he was quite young, taller than her, and a man. Nothing else.

She looked down at the three men laying in front of her. She suddenly snapped out of her state of shock, and made her way to the man in suit. She quickly checked him, and extracted a cell phone out of one of his pockets. She thought for a moment that it might have broken because of the beating, but it worked allright. She dialected a number, and pressed it against her ear. She waited for a moment, the feeling of cold wet clothes returning to her senses, for which she started trembling. Finally the other side answered.

"Hello, police?"

****************************************************************************************************************************************

Few!! It's finally over!

I seriously hadn't planned for such a long and tedious chapter. But I guess the fight was overly explained, but i'm not very good at writing them.

You know what coral movies are? Are those type of movies like _Crash _or _Babel _that deal with different storylines coming together. But I guess this is far too pretentios for me, since i failed quite miserably at trying to picture this.

But I actually consider it not such a bad chapter, i can say I'm partly satisfied with the way it went.

If you have read, I appreciate, and if you can leave areview giving sugestions or advises, i'll appreciate it even more.

Thank, and have a good day.


	4. Yes, said the silence

Here is four

Sorry it's incredibly late, cause honestly, i'm a lazy person, and i'm probably gonna die lazy.

**Author's note: **the school system I'm applying to this story is the same that in my own school. In it, there are defined classes, and these never change except in 11th grade, grade that the main characters have already passed. Also, the teachers go to the classrooms to do classes, and the students have to wait for them, except in science kind classes, in which students have to go to the the labs.

Oh, and I don't own Shaman king.

We have to say that right?

* * *

**Chapter 4: Yes, said the silence.**

Hao entered his house panting heavily. He had come back running, hoping that no one had followed him. He rested his back against the door, trying to regain his breath.

The boy remembered what he had just done. And he couldn't help to be surprised, he had never done anything like that. Going out to the street in the middle of the night, fighting people with knifes. Now that he recalled the event, he now understood how stupid and lucky he had been. They could have been experienced thugs, whom could have killed him in an instant, or even the girl could have seen his face, which would surely had gotten him into trouble.

He sighed heavily, completly calmed now. It hadn't been difficult to find his way back home. For the accident had taken place just a few blocks from his house. He placed the keys on the desk by the door, and walked towards his bedroom. He opened as quietly as possible the door, so that the bastard wouldn't awake and ask annoying questions. He stripped from his slightly wet clothes, and got into his bed wearing only his boxers.

He was tired, so it took him only a few minutes to fall sleep.

And just an hour to wake up from a nightmare, and not being able to regain sleep again, while cursing everything in the world that surrounded him, even his sweaty boxers.

* * *

An alarm clock sounded in the distance.

_An alarm clock? weird_ thought Yoh as he finished battling the dragon and was now making out with her girlfriend while in the room everyone was dressed in red, while the room kept changing it's colours.

The alarm clock sounded again. He was now running through a field, while suddenly he started flying, but then he was at his school, standing at the front of his class dancing La Macarena, while everyone was staring at a extremely bright sun, which now had the face of Yoh, singing the song YMCA.

The alarm clock sounded, and Yoh opened his eyes slowly, not remembering anything that had been happening inside his mind while he was sleep.

He sitted on his bed, his long and now untidy hair splattered all over his face. He scratched the back of his head, looking around lazily. Then he standed up, and looked at the bed on top of his, where his brother was sleeping, his face turned towards the wall.

"Hao" he said "we have to go to class" there was no respond "I'll go take a shower, you take one to after me" he then left the room. Little did he know that the boy whom he had just talked to, had his completly open, the same they had been for the last 5 hours.

Half an hour later, Yoh was having lunch in the kitchen. His mother came.

"Good morning sleepyhead"

"Morning" he said while eating from a bowl of ceareals.

"Where is your brother" she asked.

"Probably taking shower" he answered. His mother remained silent for a moment.

"Yoh" she said, the boy looked at her "I know he looks the same as he was before, but the doctor said that it was something comon for boys that had recently left the institution to be a little suspicious about his new surroundings" he remained quiet, listening "Just.... try to endure his way of behaving okay?" Yoh thought for a moment, she was right, Hao diserved a chance.

"Sure, don't worry"

"Try also to help him at school, okay? I don't think he is used to those kind of places"

"Shouldn't he be taking personal classes? he is years behind in education level don't you think?"

"Oh that, I forgot to tell you. In the institution they gave classes to the patients, and Hao excelled in all the subject, they were quite easy compared to what you study, but I guess he has a good base to stand on"

"I hope he doesn't ask me out for help, I don't think I would be able to help him very much" she said grinning. His mother smiled too. Then he noticed that his brother hadn't appeared yet, he went out of the kitchen, and noticed Hao resting his back against the door.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" he said in a low, angry tone "Let's go already" he sounded annoyed. Yoh looked at him for a moment, then went to his bedroom and grabbed his bag.

"Mom, we are leaving!"

"Wait!" he heard her call back, she soon came out of the kitchen, with too bags on her hands "here are your lunchs" she said placing them in fron of the boys. Yoh grabbed his with a smile, while Hao let out an annoyed growl before snaping the bag out of the hands of his mother, and going out through the door, shortly after, he was followed by his brother. The older woman was left there, with a bad feeling aching at the back of her mind.

Sighing, she went back to the kitchen, and while eating a toast, she grabbed the newspaper. She runned each page, until she came a across a title that grabbed her attention. Her eyes widened as she read the rest of it.

"Tamao?"

* * *

"You could have at least smiled" said Yoh as he walked in front of his brother. He heard a growl from behind "is growling your favorite word?" this was answered with another growl, which just made the boy sigh in defeat.

They walked for a few minutes in silence, Yoh wanted to say something, but he couldn't come with any subject to talk about. He turned to his brother, he was looking around, turning his head towards any new thing that popped out in their way. He wasn't showing any emotion about it, he was just looking at things. Cars, advertisements, children, grown ups. Anything. Then he noticed that he was being watched, and shoot a dead glare towards his brother. Yoh retained the look for a moment, then turned around, annoyed by his brother's attitude.

He rested his hands against the back of his head, and gazed towards the sky. It was a sunny day. Quite different from yesterday, which had been very cloudy. He noticed that the streets were full of puddles on random places. It probably rained last night.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked, he was only answered by the silence. '_Okay' _he thought "you know, if it is difficult for you to keep up with the lessons, you can ask me to help you, okay?" he turned tu his brother, he was looking at him, serious. Yoh noticed the dark circles under his eyes. He probably didn't sleep very well. Seeing that he was annoyed and not in the humor, he decided to remain quiet for the rest of the trip.

It took them fifteen minutes to reach the school.

Hao couldn''t remember the last time that he had seen so many people together. There were boys of all the ages, of all the sizes, doing all kinds of things. He looked in all the directions, and all he could see was movement, chaotic movement.

Strangely many eyes were fixed on him. It was understandable, probably they knew his brother, and seeing someone exactly like him would be something quite bizarre. He decided to ignore the puzzled looks, and just followed his twin. They went through hallways, and classrooms. He sometimes could hear somebody whisper things like "_Isn't that Yoh? whos the guy besides him?_" "_He looks just like him!" "Oh my god! it's his clone"_ Could someone be really that stupid?

He turned to Yoh, he was just smiling, laughing at the comentaries. How could he stand it? He probably was just enjoying so much attention on him, he always liked to call the attention. He was always so smiley all the time. Some things never change.

"That's strange, I wonder were is Ana, she always arrives before me" he said looking around. Hao looked around, he wasn't really in the mood to speak with anybody, so he was grateful the she hadn't appeared yet. After a while, Yoh entered one of the classrooms "this is us" he said. It wasn't nothing, just a classroom. A few people were there.

"Hey Yoh!" he heard a voice call his brother. It was the boy with the spiky hair that was at his house the other day.

"Hey Ren" they collided their fists between, each other affectionately. The boy then turned to Hao, and he noticed how his mood changed from happy to uncomfortable.

"Hey ermm Hao" he said offering his right hand. Hao knew what that meant, it was an expression of acknowledgement that the other person in you same level. He looked at the hand, then at the person it belonged to. He really wasn't interested in acknowledging that boy, since he was the bastard's friend. The friend of my enemy, is my enemy.

Ren remained there, looking questionably at him. Hao mantained the look. The boy turned to Yoh, he shrugged, not knowing what to do.

A bell rang in the distance. And everyone started to abandon the hallways and entering the classrooms. The teachers slowly made their way towards the place were they had class.

"What do we have now?" asked Yoh, while they headed towards their chairs.

"Universal History I think" said Ren. Hao followed them, Yoh noticed this.

"Hao" he said, the boy turned to him "you have to wait at the door for the teacher, so you can be introduced to the whole class"

Incredible. Now he had to give a show to the whole class.

"Everyone, please pay attention!" everyone looked towards the front, the teacher placed a hand over Hao's shoulder, he was quite tall, and had black, long hair, his name was Silva, he was dressed in some cheap suit, and for his appearence Hao could tell that he was foreigner "This is Hao Asakura, brother of your classmate Yoh" Everyone's jaw dropped, as their gazes traveled from one brother to the other. One was serious, the other was quite cheerfull "He is going to join our class, please treat him well, okay?" everyone continued whispering, he turned to the boy, waiting him to introduce himself.

Hao remained quiet, disgusted by the people in front of him.

"Hi" he said, like he was supposed to. After that, the whole class, erupted into whispering.

"Go sit behind Ren, he is the boy at the right of your brother" it was near the end of the classroom. He cursed in his mind for having to be so near him, but he didn't want any trouble, so he made his way towards his asignated chair. He didn't make any eye contact with anybody, but he could feel the stares of each person in the class following him. They were seriously starting to piss him off.

He sat down, and looked towards the front of the room, ignoring the stares. He had always liked History, back at the institution, they would give the patients some basic classes, like maths, or lenguage.

Learning was something that kept his mind occupied, so when he was in class, he was a hundred percent in class. As if he was transported to another place, where there was nothing to think about except what was being teached. He quickly pullled out one of the notebooks that had been bought to him before his arrival, along with a pencil case.

"Hey!" he heard someone call him at his right. He turned and saw a tall boy with blue hair, he was looking at Hao with quite some interest "So you are the idiot's brother, huh?"

Hao was a little surprised by the boy's comment, he was probably the first person that he heard saying something interesting. But actually the boy himself looked like an idiot, for his uniform was all messed up, and seemed to care very little for anything concerning the class.

Hao was finding it quite troublesome, for the boy was still looking at him, waiting for a answer. Luckily for him, the profesor decided to start the class, and everyone fell quiet, as they had been whispering and restlessly staring at Hao. he choosed to ignore this, and pay attention. But he soon found it quite difficult, for everyone keeped staring from time to time, sometimes chuckling lowly, or whispering something to their partner. He noticed that a girl took a picture of him with her cellphone.

He had never wanted to hit someone so much before.

This really was going to be more difficult than what he thought.

* * *

"Hey, where did your brother go?" said Ren after History class had ended. And there was no trace of Hao. It was the ten-minute break, so nobody really left the classroom, and all the class was now chatting or even some were taking a little nap. Yoh looked around the room.

"No idea" he said, while laying lazily on his desk, it didn't matter if he had sleeped ten or eleven hours, he was always sleepy "Hey, have you seen Ana? I couldn't find her in the morning" Ren looked surprised.

"Wait, you don't know?" Yoh looked at him questionably.

"Know what?" Ren sighed, he grabbed his bag and searched inside of it, and took of the newspaper, and gave it to Yoh.

"I guess with your stupidly lazy and clueless atittude, is normal than you don't know a think about what's going on around you" Yoh scanned the front page, but he didn't see anything unusual, he looked at his friend "I think it was page twenty-four" Ren said thinking hardly. Yoh frowned, and opened it on the page he had said.

"Ermm..." said Yoh after having a quick look "What does a tsunami in China has anything to do with me?"

"Give me that" said Ren, annoyed. He ran through the pages quickly, back and forth, then stopped at one "Aha!" he gave it to his friend "here" Yoh read it in silence, then his eyes widened.

"What?! Tamao? A vigilante? last night?" he kept reading, surprised "what the hell?" he turned towards his friend.

"Wicked huh?" said Ren, Yoh nooded.

"Damn, it was near my house!"

"Yeah" as the boy kept reading the more surprised he was.

"I guess that's the reason why Ana didn't come to school today" he immediately took out his cell phone, and called his girlfriend.

"Pirika didn't come neither" added Ren. Yoh waited for a moment for the other side to pick up.

"Heey blondie!"

"_Hi Asakura_" Yo's face turned white.

"Oh! Hello Mr. Kyoyama, how are you doing?" Ren looked amused by the expression on his friend's face, it was priceless, he tried his best to supress his luaghter.

"S_till alive headphones"_

_"_Is Ana anywhere around?"

"_Nope, she forgot her phone at home, she was in quite a hurry. She is at Tamao's place right now"_

_"_Ok, thank you very much sir. Have a good day, goodbye"

"_Bye" _Ren couldn't handle it anymore, the moment Yoh separated his ear from his cell phone, he laughed like crazy.

"Man! You should have seen your face!" Yoh smiled, in truth, he and his father in law had a very good relationship, and they loved to play the game of evil father of the girlfriend. He was quite liberal, and youthful, which often annoyed his daughter.

"I better call Tamao directly" he said rising his phone again. He waited for a moment for her to pick up "Hey Tami"

"_Hi Yoh"_

"Heard what happened, you allright?"

_"Yeah, I'm fine" _

"What's all this vigilante thing?"

_"You probably read it in the newspaper. It's as they describe it"_

"What? Batman left the suit at home?"

_"Haha, that seems to be the case" _

_"_But you are ok right?"

"_Yeah, not a scratch" _

_"_That's good, is Ana there?"

"_Yeah, hold on a second" _Yoh heard Tamao calling Ana "_Hello?" _It was Ana.

"Hey blondie!"

"_Hai Yoh"_

"What's the matter? You sound tired"

"_Yeah, I was hardly able to sleep last night"_

"What exactly happened last night?"

_"Well, me and Pirika decided to call Ana's house later. We waited for a moment, but when we called she hadn't arrived yet" _

"What did you do then?"

"_Well, Prirka had already arrived to her house, but we decided to go to Ana's after calling a couple of times, when we arrived, the police had brought her back to her house"_

"That reminds me, would you please smack that pink haired retard in the head?"

"_Don't worry it has already been taken care of, trust me"_

_"_Hahaha, ok, guess I'll see you after class right?"

_"Yeah, me and Pirika are gonna stay here"_

"See you in few hours then"

_"A few hours it is"_

_"_Love you, bye"

"_Love you more, bye" _

"So what's the situation captain?" asked Ren after his friend had placed his cell phone inside his pocket.

"The three of them are at Tamao's" the boy nooded.

"We go there after class?" Yoh nooded. the bell rang in the distance, and students returned to their chairs or came back from outside. Hao was among them. He entered silently, and sat on his chair, without talking to anyone. Ren looked at him "where do you think he went to?"

"No idea" said Yoh, he turned to his brother "Hey Hao!" the boy turned to him "Where did you go during the break?" he looked at him for a moment, then turned away, looking annoyed.

"It's none of your business" Yoh stared at him for a moment, then he too turned away, sighing in defeat. He looked at his friend.

"Guess there is no point to it. What do we have now?" he asked Ren.

"Maths I think" Yoh sighed dramatically, as if he was in pain.

"Why it had to be maths?" he asked to no one in particular. Ren didn't seem to mind, he was just staring boringly at how the students and teacher began to prepare to for class.

* * *

When the bell rang, Hao rised from his desk, and went out of the classroom. The second break lasted for 20 minutes, so he had more time. The previous one, he had been looking around school searching for some quiet and isolated place to hang out. It had proved to be quite a task. He had gone to the playgrounds, stuffed with people. Not his type of thing.

He had already passed the playgrounds, and was looking for places behind the buildings. Some had guys smoking or drinking without the teachers seeing them. Some had even approached him and asked if he was Yoh's brother, to which he had just grunted and walked away. They were all so stupid, he could hardly believe it.

To Hao, this was an strange, unknown place. He had always been left alone at the institution, nobody talked to him. He hated that place, he prefered a million times to be here than back at that white building.

So he kept on walking, still looking for his place.

He stopped suddenly, as an idea struck his mind.

'W_hy do I wish to be alone?' _he thought. He actully hated to be alone, it kinda scared him. The silence brought back strange memories. Memories that hurted quite a lot.

He didn't really know why he wanted to be that way. Alone.

"Hey! Idiot's brother!" he herad a voice behind him. When he turned, he found the blue haired guy from his class. Suddenly he forgot about the question he was thinking, and began to fell that strange displeasure he always felt around people "What's up?" Hao just stood there, looking at him, then turned around and resumed walking.

"Leave me alone" he said. The boy was left there. He turned to his group of friends who had been looking at the events from afar, he shrugged to them, and they shrugged back, all of them with a curious look on their faces, he looked at Hao walking away "What's his problem?" he said turning around.

The long-haired boy was more calm now. It had always been like this: he felt so uncomfortable when being around people. It was as if they were from another race to which he wasn't able to relate to.

He kept on walking, the school was quite big. He noticed that fewer people could be seen. Actually, now that he thought about it, there was noone around. He stopped. He probably was at the very back of the school.

It was all so quiet.

There was a cellar, a quite big one. He walked behind it, and found some stairs that made their way to the roof of it. When he got there, he truned to see if anybody was around. Not a soul was there.

So this was the place. He sitted down, with his legs hanging down the wall. He could see the bouldings of both the city and of the school. He could hear the noice from the other students, and of cars running not far away. But the noices were very far, and they didn't bother him.

He laid back on top of the roof. His hands at the back of his head. But as soon as he did that, the bell rang, marking the end of the break.

He sighed, and stood up. He had to go back there. Back to the world.

Well, at least he had found a place to rest from that world.

As he made his way through the hallways, a big figure suddenly came out from behind a wall. They both slightly crashed. Hao looked up, it was a very tall person, his uniform was very untidy, and his hairstyle reminded him of Elvis Presley, only that it was more pronounced. They guy looked like 21 or something, quite more older than Hao.

"Hey watch..." he suddenly stopped, as he noticed with whom he had crushed. The guy looked quite surprised, then he smirked, behind him there were three more people, they all were tall, and looked like delinquents. They probably were some bullies or something "well if it isn't little Yoh" he laughed a little. Great, now they were insulting him. He was too irritated now, and he was running late for class.

"Just get out of my way" said Hao, as he avoided the guy and resumed his way to his class.

* * *

Ryu looked quite surprised at the boy who had just insulted him, and was walking away. This was something that he wasn't expecting, nor he was going to let go so easily. He started walking to wards him.

"Hey.." he began to say, but he was stopped, he turned around, it was one of his pals.

"Wait man" he said "that's not Yoh, that's his twin brother" Ryu was shocked, his eyes widened as he turned to the boy walking away.

"Seriously? his brother?" he asked, his friend nooded. He remained quiet for a moment, then he smirked "Interesting" he stared for a few minutes at Hao, then turned around, his group following behind him.

* * *

Aaaand..... nothing happened.

God! I hate this kind of chapters, they are so freaking boring!!

And sorry for the horrible ending, I just wanted to finish the damn chapter.

Well whatever, I hope that in the next chapter something happens.

Leave some review if you want, and any random idea will be heard (but not necesarily put in action)

I also wish to remind you that the characters in this story are drastically different from the ones in the anime or the manga.


End file.
